But, I know that we’ll never get them all eaten in time before they go bad, we get fat, the kids stop eating any semblance of real food in favor of all the sugar, or someone forgets to close the pantry door and the Bailey dog helps herself to them

(oh yes, that’s happened!)

What do I do then?

I stash extra cookie dough in the freezer to use later.

But it isn’t just about not wanting to eat everything all at once.

The other truth is that we go through food A LOT quicker now as a household of 6 than we did when I only had my 2 kiddos and no husband.

We’re a lot busier, too, so gone are the leisurely afternoons of baking up cookies whenever I had the whim.

For me it is so much easier to make an extra large batch of cookie dough and keep them in the freezer for when we need them.

Or want them.

Need.

Want.

It’s all pretty much the same thing when it involves cookies, am I right?

Not only is is great to have frozen cookie dough on hand for last minute cookie cravings.

But, it has totally been the best thing ever when we have last minute get togethers with friends or a bunch of kids coming over to hang.

There is always something quick to toss in the oven in these social situations.

We did just this a month or so back, and then a few weekends later the same friends came over and the first thing those kiddos said to me was – can you make cookies?

Unfortunately, we had just used up the last of the cookies a few days before and I hadn’t gotten around to making another batch.

The horrors!

So, here is a quick tutorial for today’s kitchen tip on how I like to freeze cookie dough for later use.

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67 comments

Thanks for this post! I’m just wondering about the NYT chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is all about the dough resting in the fridge before baking. Should I let the dough rest in the fridge before freezing, or can the dough go into the freezer right away?

I always put it straight in the freezer and they still taste awesome so for me the convenience of freezing them right away way outweighs the off chance it might be slightly better. I figure it is resting in the freezer, too…just colder than in the fridge. HAHA!

how long can the raw cookie dough stay in the freezer for?

I would say about 6 weeks or so. Ours never last that long that because we eat them up.

I love this idea! I can’t believe I never thought of freezing cookie dough that way. I did it today, only it used mini muffin baking pans to freeze the balls in. That way I don’t have to worry if the tray doesn’t sit completely straight. Thank you for this great idea!

This recipe looks amazing, I can’t wait to try it!

Thanx for the info. My best friend are going to have a marathon holiday baking day and I wanted to do a bunch o’ batches ahead of time to reduce the mess and have more time to gab. Part bakery/ part hen house.

Instead of rolling the cookie dough,I bought a cookie scoop,they come in a couple of different sizes for small or medium size cookies,works great,I love mine

This is a great tip i never knew this !

I too have been doing this very same thing for many, many years. I’ve seen recipes where you mold the dough into a roll, and then slice & bake. But I prefer to freeze the individual cookies as you described.

This inspires me to bake cookies in the summer. Make a big batch and freeze most of it. Then you only need to turn on the toaster oven in the heat.
Thanks

I’ve been doing this for years. I make up about 6 different kinds and give them to my parents for their Christmas present. They love them, the box I put them in has come back to me every Oct. so I can refill it for Christmas. They always have cookies if its just 2 baked for supper or a dozen for whatever.

how long will the cookies last in the freezer? I want to give my single uncle cookie dough for xmas because he has a sweet tooth but wont make home baked goods for himself and If a pre bake them he will eat them all in one sitting! This would be a good way for him to have treats without over doing it.

I do this occasionally, but I never thought about using a straw to get out some of the extra air!

I feel the exact same way- we read all these recipe and want to try everything (Like your almond butter cookies and almond oatmeal chunk)! What a great idea on the cookie dough. That way you can have new treats, and save some for later. Plus when you need a quick something to bring over to someone or want to give a thank you plate of cookies. You cna just have some ready! This comes to mind for Christmas cookie trays too. Start preparing then all you have to do is bake them up. Allrighty- 2 minutes longer, got it!

I do the same thing with my cookie dough! Especially since I’m really only baking for myself most of them time. 🙂

This is awesome! Thank you so much for this great tip.

Hi! I do this too – I love baking cookies but my husband was not blessed with a sweet tooth and we have no children to wolf them down…I skip the placing the cookie balls on a cookie sheet and just ball them and put them directly in the ziploc (my freezer is tiny) and works well. Some of the dough ends up sticking together, but it will break apart after thawing for a minute. I’ve also found that adding two minutes to the bake time works like a charm.

What if the cookie dough is not ‘ballable’? Can you just drop on the sheet from a spoon and freeze and put this (though not balls, they are individual cookies) in the bag etc? I can’t see why not, but figured I’d ask…Thx. Awesome idea, btw!!

Yes – you can definitely do that. Or if they’re slice and bake cookies you can just roll the dough into a long and wrap that in wax paper, then put in the labeled freezer bag. Does that make sense?

Brilliant!
I can’t wait to try this!

I have frozen Chocolate Chip cookie dough using the Freezer Press N Seal. You just put the Press N Seal on a cookie sheet and scoop the cookie dough out on it, like you were going to bake them, except you put another sheet of the Press N Seal on top and seal all around the dough balls. I usually refrigerate them so they get firmer before putting them in a freezer bag, so they don’t lose their ball shape.
Then when you want to make them, you just cut off a piece of the Press N Seal with the amount that you want to bake.
I usually just take them out of the freezer while the oven is pre-heating, ( which is a huge tip to make sure your oven is pre-heated before putting the dough in.)
I also always use Egg Beaters in place of real raw eggs so if you want to eat the Raw Dough you can……

Such a great idea, I don’t know why I don’t do this more often. I’m thinking freezing is going to be a must this holiday season to keep my sanity!

This is great – thanks! I’ll use these tips! What about freezing already cooked muffins or baked goods? My babies love healthy muffins as snacks, but I don’t like to have them around all the time – too tempting for all of us! Thanks!

Thanks for the step-by-step explanation for us freezer newbies! I feel more confident to give this a go now. Thanks for sharing!

The other great way to freeze dough is in logs if they’re slice-able. I freeze sugar, spice/ginger and “melt-away” cookie dough this way especially at Christmas time and it’s a real life saver. In fact, we even did a fundraiser selling the frozen dough logs one year and it was a big hit! Just wrap the dough in wax paper, then place in a zip top bag. No thawing needed, just slice the frozen paper-wrapped log into rounds, peel off the paper strip and bake from frozen. It sometimes needs a couple more minutes cook time, but works extremely well!

What a great idea. I love to bake, but often shy away from it because I don’t want an overload of sweets in the house for me (or anyone else for that matter).

Great idea. Especially before the hectic holidays begin. 🙂

I do this all the time, I vacuum seal the cookies after they are frozen. When I sell my houses I pop out enough to bake a batch. When the potential buyer walk in with the real estate folks they smell fresh homebaked cookies. I leave a note to help themselves. It has made our home see fast every time.

You are one smart lady, Cindy! I am definitely going to do this when we show our house next year!

We always freeze cookie dough balls for later! Love doing this so I can have a fresh baked cookie at anytime:)

Great tip! This is exactly what I do with lots of baby and toddler finger foods and looks like it works wonderful with cookie dough. I also like to make larger batches of things at one time. It just saves on the cleanup…the worst part of the whole experience!

I should do this more often. Thanks for the reminder. Mmm, now I’m craving cookies!

That’s so smart to pre-roll all of the cookies! I used to just freeze mine by the log and then have to wait the agonizing time it took to defrost so that I could roll the dough. This is so much better!

I would love to have these cookies in the freezer! Although I’d be tempted to eat the cookie dough frozen.

Great tip Katie! Seeing yours scooped cookie dough balls brought back memories of working in my Mother’s kitchens for hours on end scooping cookie dough one summer. I scooped thousands! Now my husband prefers to eat them straight out of the freezer, no baking required!